[jsq]

trdrcrdkid

great article, thanks for posting.

author of the 1970 article dick reuss, long since departed, was a major collector. very smart guy and quite intense in his pursuit of cards. he had a real passion for bb history and the related cards. he was no novice when he wrote this article so the article clearly conveys the mentality toward condition at that moment in time ie rubber bands.

in the early and mid 70's very very FEW collectors had any interest in condition as it is currently in the hobby. the focus was on filling the missing number. if you had two cards in your paw at the same time you always kept the better one of course. cards were much harder to come by prior to the hotel convention buying trips of the mid 70's which unleashed the bulk of the pre 1960 cards that exist in the hobby today.

before the mid 70's hotel buying trips, cards were quite difficult to find even if you had a very fat wallet. so who cared about condition you just wanted to get the missing number in the set. rubber bands were what a LOT of people used. soaking was normal and widely understood.

the soaked cards would be a bit stiffer afterward from the drying process and sometimes a piece of the card would be removed with the album page as that glue stuck more in some places then others. most glue that held cards in albums was water soluble. but all told soaking was pretty successful.

the person that taught me to soak cards was/is one of the more prominent collectors of all time, and that is just what you did back then. (and evidently still many still soak cards when found in albums.)

all the best